Philosophy

Education

• Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Hawaii, 2004
• MA, Philosophy, University of Hawaii, 1999
• BA, Philosophy and Chinese Language and Literature, 1992

Interests and Expertise

Research Interests

• Chinese and comparative philosophy
• philosophy of action
• philosophical psychology
• aesthetics.

For more information, please visit his website.

Courses

• PHIL 110 Philosophies of Life
• PHIL 215 Philosophy of Religion
• PHIL 291 Introduction to Asian Philosophy
• PHIL 379 Topics: American Pragmatism
• PHIL 379 Topics: Philosophy of Action
• PHIL 391 Early Chinese Philosophy
• PHIL 442 Philosophy of Mind
• PHIL 591 Topics in Chinese Philosophy: Daoism

Publications and Presentations

Selected Publications

• Ziran: The Philosophy of Spontaneous Self-Causation, State University of New York Press, 2022
  《自然与智慧——中国古代思想对现代科学与教育的启示》人民出版社，2022
• "Qing (情) and Emotion in Early Chinese Thought," Ming Qing Studies (Ming Qing Yanjiu), 2001
  《早期中国思想中的“情”与情感》《汉籍与汉学》2021, 1. 
• New Life for Old Ideas: Chinese Philosophy in the Contemporary World, co-edited with Yanming An, The Chinese University Press, 2019
• "Fluid Attention in Education: Conceptual and Neurobiological Framework," co-authored with Yi-Yuan Tang, Frontiers in Psychology, 12:704443
• "To Render Ren: Saving Authoritativeness," in One Corner of the Square: Essays on the Philosophy of Roger T. Ames, ed. by Ian M. Sullivan and Joshua Mason, University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2021
• "Three-Dimensional Wisdom and Perceived Stress among College Students," co-authored with Monika Ardelt, Journal of Adult Development (2021) 28: 93-105
• "Fostering Wisdom in the Classroom – Part 2: A Curriculum," co-authored with Monika Ardelt, Teaching Philosophy, Vol. 41, No. 4 (2018)
• "Fostering Wisdom in the Classroom – Part: 1: A General Theory of Wisdom Pedagogy," co-authored with Monika Ardelt, Teaching Philosophy, Vol. 41, No. 3 (2018)
• "Is Attention Really Effort?  Revisiting Daniel Kahneman's Influential 1973 Book Attention and Effort," co-authored with Yi-Yuan Tang, Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 9 (2018)
• "Wisdom Can Be Taught: A Proof-of-Concept Study for Fostering Wisdom in the Classroom," co-authored with Monika Ardelt, Learning and Instruction, Vol. 58: 106-114 (2018)
• "Ethnocentrism and Multiculturalism in Contemporary Philosophy," Philosophy East and West, Vol. 67, No. 4 (2017) 
• "Appearance and Reality in the Philosophical Gourmet Report: Why the Discrepancy Matters to the Profession of Philosophy," Metaphilosophy, Vol. 46, Nos. 4-5, 2015
• The Philosophical Challenge from China, MIT Press, 2015
• "The Tacit Rejection of Multiculturalism in American Philosophy Ph.D. Programs: The Case of Chinese Philosophy," Dao, vol. 14, no. 3, 2015 The Philosophical Challenge from China, MIT Press, 2015
• "Action without Agency and Natural Human Action: Resolving a Double Paradox," in The Philosophical Challenge from China, 2015
• "The Cognitive Science of Wu Wei" Journal of Chinese Philosophy and Culture, No. 9, 2011 Effortless Attention: A New Perspective in the Cognitive Science of Attention and Action, MIT Press, 2010
• "The Rehabilitation of Spontaneity: A New Approach in Philosophy of Action" Philosophy East and West, 2010
• "Education and Responsiveness: On the Agency of Intersubjectivity" in Educations and Their Purposes, 2008
• "Review of Text and Ritual in Early China," China Review International, 2007/2008
• "Schools that 'Flow,'" Education Week, 2006
• More of Bruya's Publications

Dissertation

• Aesthetic Spontaneity: A Theory of Action Based on Affective Responsiveness

Recent Professional Presentations

• "The Relation Between Three-Dimensional Wisdom and Perceived Stress: Findings from Cross-Linked Models (co-authored with Monika Ardelt), Society for the Study of Human Development, Austin, 2015
  
• "Marcus Aurelius, Confucius, and the Elements of Wisdom: Preliminary Steps to a Theory of Wisdom Pedagogy," Third China-Greek International Academic Conference on Philosophy, Qufu, China, 2015
  
• "Category Ontology in Comparative Philosophy: Vertical Integration, Wu-Wei, and Flow," American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, Vancouver, 2015
  
• "What is Effortlessness?" Star Lecture Series, Eastern Michigan University, 2015
  
• "Natural Human Action," Department of Philosophy, National Taiwan University, 2013
• "Ziran, Wu Wei, and the Science of Effortless Attention: Putting Ancient Chinese Philosophy in a Contemporary Context" Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 2012
• "Nature, Self, and Artifice: On the Divisibility of the Self in Action and Aesthetics" (2012 University of Michigan Tang Junyi Lecture) Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 2012
• "Action and the Divisibility of the Self: Recent Psychological Evidence for a New Distinction"  Department of Philosophy, University of New Mexico, 2012
• "Action and the Divisibility of the Self: Recent Psychological Evidence for a New Distinction" Department of Philosophy, Oakland University, 2011

Additional Information

Personal Website